Another Chance
by Enora of Kaneda
Summary: What happens when Shepard fails to stop the Reapers, and the Traveler sees this? He sends them another chance.


**Disclaimer: I do not own any story, dialogue or characters from the Mass Effect franchise or Destiny. I only own my OC and any changes made to the original plot/history of either games.**

 **Summary: What happens when Shepard fails to stop the Reapers, and the Traveler sees this. He sends them another chance.**

* * *

All I remember is darkness.

' _Why does my body feel so heavy.._ ' I tried to get up, but it felt as if the weight of the world was on me, pushing me down and back into sleep. Or at least what I assumed was sleep.

I tried again to open my eyes, only to see.. nothing. Wherever I was, it was so dark that I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face.

"Ghost..?" I croaked out, hoping he could shed some light on this place and maybe even the situation.

Silence.

"Ghost?" I started to ask a bit more desperately. I couldn't see, I couldn't move and I had no idea if I was in a safe place or not. ' _What a great way to start my day!_ ' I mused sarcastically.

I decided that I'd try to at least sit up if I couldn't get up.. But I just couldn't.

"Ghost! Where are you?!" I was truly getting scared now, and this was amplified my the fact that I could now hear hushed, and sinister sounding whispering all around me.

Then suddenly, white.

* * *

I woke up and opened my eyes, only to close them rapidly at a blinding light in front of me.

' _Where am I now?_ ' The floor beneath me was metallic now, it's cold, hard touch giving that away immediately.

In the fetal position, I rolled over onto my other side so I'd be looking away from the blinding light. ' _Okay, now let's actually SEE where I am._ ' I slowly opened my eyes this time, to find chaos.

I was looking out into space and all around there were strange looking ships of various designs fighting these.. gargantuan spacecrafts. I could only faintly hear explosions around me, almost as if everything that wasn't around the 'platform' I was on was silenced. But I saw it all. Those gargantuan spacecrafts were decimating the other smaller ships, and they were taking there time as they lazily moved about, practically unaffected by the attacks wrought by the smaller ships.

It was an all out war.

And it was obvious who was winning.

"What's happening?" I was shocked. It was almost as if those giant spacecrafts were...

"The Reapers are purging life from the galaxy once again."

I jumped in my skin and turned my head and looked up to see a.. little boy, who looked like a hologram of sorts.

"What do you mean, 'they are purging the galaxy.. AGAIN'?" That fear was creeping back up my spine knowing that this wasn't a war, but the extermination of life, as if the people being exterminated were nothing more than dust to be swept under a rug.. And to think that this wasn't the first 'purge of life' was even more concerning.

"Every fifty thousand years the Reapers return to the galaxy in order to purge it of life, so that the cycle may repeat in another fifty thousand years." the little boy said this without even blinking, as if it was common knowledge and it was how things were meant to be. As if this.. death, was necessary and "meant to be".

Then he continued speaking, "You are an awoken."

A simple observation, and rather obvious considering my pale glowing eyes and my pale greyish skin. The only thing that pointed to me being of a mixed heritage was my ink black hair in comparison to the blue, purple and silver hair of normal awoken. My lack of marks which most awoken have on their faces was also a small give away should someone notice. My father was a well established awoken and my mother, a humble human. I was apart of a group of lucky few who are welcome in dark space as an awoken despite being Earth-born. A privilege I can thank my father for.

"Yes, I am." I answered him, though I knew what he said had been a statement.

"The Traveler has seen what is happening then and has seen Shepard's failure." he mused.

"Shepard?" His eyes focused on me and he pointed to a spot right beside where I was curled up on the ground. ' _Who is he talking abou-_ '.. And, looking beside me, I noticed a body.

Alarmed I quickly looked back to the little boy, but he answered my question before I could ask it.

"John Shepard. Raised on Mindoir, a small border colony in the Attican Traverse. At sixteen slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering his family and friends. He was saved by a passing Alliance patrol, and enlisted with the military a few years later.

Early in his military career he found himself facing an overwhelming enemy force. He risked his own life to save his fellow soldiers and defeat the enemy despite the impossible odds. His bravery and heroism have earned him medals and recognition from the Alliance fleet. The War Hero almost single-handedly repelled an attack by batarian slavers on Elysium.

He was born a soldier and, more importantly, a leader." he finished after dolling out all of this information as if he were reading it from a book.

"Question, why are you giving me the information of a dead man?" Through a slowly building headache, I was trying to piece together and figure out what this boy wanted, what the purpose in telling me all this was.

Suddenly, the child smiled, and though it was meant to look innocent, it came off as dark and calculating.

"You best hope for your sake, and the rest of the galaxies, that you're able to accomplish what Shepard couldn't and that you are able to accomplish that which you were sent here for."

And things went dark again.

* * *

 **AN: WELL, this story was certainly unexpected. I hoped it isn't too bad for a first timer!**

 **I'm going to be replaying the Mass Effect games between updates, so bear with me if I don't update things regularly!**

 **I chose the default male Shepard for the story. In it he is a Colonist, War Hero and a Soldier.**

 **My OC will be a female Awoken for this story. She is Earth-born, a Guardian and a Warlock. ( _Her personal story will be revealed slowly but surely and she'll have a name by next chapter._ ) BTW, if you want to pitch in and suggest a name for our lovely awoken warlock, I'm all ears and welcome suggestions since her name isn't confirmed yet. :)**


End file.
